‘IT’S NOT JUST ME’

Christian Bale Jokes That He Has Leo DiCaprio to Thank for His Career

“Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he’s passed on it beforehand,” the actor joked.

Christian Bale, dubbed “Hollywood’s reluctant king” by GQ in a new profile, joked that he—and many other actors—owe their careers to Leonardo DiCaprio, who seemingly always gets first dibs. “It’s not just me,” Bale told the magazine. “Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he’s passed on it beforehand.” The Amsterdam star, 48, added that it generally doesn’t matter how “friendly” an actor is with a filmmaker: “They all offered every one of those roles to him first… So, thank you, Leo, because literally, he gets to choose everything he does.” Bale clarified that he didn’t take this personally, but “I would suspect that almost everybody of similar age to him in Hollywood owes their careers to him passing on whatever project it is.” It’s known that DiCaprio, 47, beat out Bale for meaty roles not only in This Boy’s Life and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, but also Titanic’s Jack Dawson, the part that paved DiCaprio’s path to superstardom. Bale’s own career-making role in 2000’s American Psycho only came after DiCaprio departed the project over reported creative differences.